The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits after Christmas fell to an eight-month low, capping off a year of remarkably low layoffs in a surprising resilient U.S. economy.
New jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, dropped by 9,000 to 211,000 in the final week of 2024, the government said Thursday.
By comparison, new jobless claims in the same in final week of 2023 were similarly low at 198,000.
New jobless claims have hovered in the low 200,000s for the last three years. Most businesses have had strong-enough sales to retain all their employees and only use layoffs as a last resort in light of steady economic growth.
One big caveat about jobless claims: The government's seasonal adjustments during the holiday season that starts at Thanksgiving are less accurate than usual. Sometimes the adjustments exaggerate the shift in jobless claims.
Key details: New jobless claims declined in 32 of the 53 states and territories that report these figures to the federal government.
The number of workers collecting unemployment benefits, meanwhile, decreased by 52,000 to 1.84 million, based on seasonally adjusted figures.
These so-called continuing claims are still near the highest level since 2018 if the pandemic period is omitted. It's taking longer for people who lose a job to find another because of a slowdown in hiring.
Big picture: Slow hiring and low firing - that's the best way to describe the labor market.
Look for the trend to continue in early 2025 until businesses get a sense of how President-elect Trump's policies will affect the economy
Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA and S&P 500 SPX were set to open higher in Thursday trading.
